to raise the conscious of all who, like myself, love the professionn of
librarianship. Lets ask ourselves. where are we all going? in 5, 10,
15 years what will this profession be like? What will we all be doing?
Will it make a difference if you have a library degree? Or will some
other type of degree be required? Let me suggest to you, that we need
to be looking ahead at the road that awaits us all. We need to be
pooling our resources together, professional, non-professional, degree
or no degree. Whether you agree or disagree with the current
controversy, we are all in this together.
We are all ponds in the middle of a information revolution that
will make us obsolete in a few years if we don't pay attention. Let us
consider what needs to be done to endure the revolution and to be part
of the coming changes, because whether you agree or not the information
revolution is coming. Just think for a monent about whats happened
over the last few years to the Internet. Think about the changes to
Lexis, Westlaw, Dialog, Orbit, Questel. How about, American online,
prodigy, Compu-serve, Netcom/Netscape, and the many other online
services that have become household words. Computer online services
and the information highways are impacting on our profession like
nothing else. CD ROM technology will eventually put an entire library
on a desk top. Where will our libraries be then? I suggest to you
that we will no longer be librarians but information and computer
specialist with technical skills that a few years ago didn't exist. In
the future we will be called upon to conduct online searches from home,
from our cars, and from our hotel rooms during AALL conventions. Many
of us already have computers at home that will allow us to conduct
online searches, or dial into an office main computer.
I am not making light of the person who has labored hard to achieve
a high degree of excellence either by acquiring his/her MLS or just
through many years of dedicated service to the library community. I am
only saying, lets keep our eye on the ball. We all have the
commonality of a great profession. We all can make contributions to
help educate and develop young talent. We all have a part to play. We
all love the help people. Isn't that what we do? The Universities Law
Libraries, The Private Law Libraries, The Federal Law Libraries, The
State Law Libraries are all part of the total picture. We are all
needed or else we wouldn't exist. When I look back over my many years
of service, I don't ever recall being asked by a Law Clerk, Summer
Associate, New Associate or anyone needing my professional help, or any
Library Association, as a condition for excepting my dues, what paper I
held. Today when I see Partners who I helped find their way around the
Law Library when they where Summer Associates and later young
attorneys, my heart is filled with pride. Because my success is
measured in the successes of the many lives I've touch throughout the
years. Let us all look ahead at the big picture, for we can only be
destroy from the inside out, not the outside in. We alone hold the key
to the success of all who follow. We alone hold the key to ride the
information revolution to it's highest heights. There is strength in
numbers. Let us unite and forge together to form programs and
workshops that will keep us all working and serving at all levels.
This is not about you or me, it's about us and the profession we all
love. Let us all keep moving forward with the coming changes, because,
one day your Library will be a computer chip in your pocket and your
Library staff will be anyone you can reach on your computer and your
title won't be Librarian.
Bennie Braxton, Librarian
Sughrue, Mion, Zinn, Macpeak & Seas
2100 Pennsylvania, Ave. N.W. #800
Washington, D.C. 20037
202-663-7375
bbraxton@ix.netcom.com
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